Leon's Fish Dishes (At Home)

Lunch service ended in a huge success, and afternoon arrived.

All right! I'll do my best!

I headed to the kitchen, full of enthusiasm. Mom and Dad helped me cook, while Marie and Ian watched. It seemed everyone was intensely curious about the seafood ingredients.

I placed the wooden boxes on the counter and opened the lids. The larger box contained seafood packed in ice, while the smaller one held oil and other things I'd bought in the downtown area. I bought extra in case we ran out.

"Is this... ice? Why is there so much of it?"

Ian-kun asked with a puzzled expression. It was true that ice could form if you left water outside in the middle of winter, but it was still around the beginning of winter.

"A noble lent me a magic tool, and I used it to make this ice."

I answered that way because I wasn't supposed to reveal too much about my abilities. Commoners thought of magic tools merely as convenient devices used by nobles, so they usually accepted that explanation without question.

"I see. Magic tools really are convenient, huh? They can even make ice."

"They really are convenient. It'd be nice to have one, wouldn't it? Anyway, the things inside the ice are seafood ingredients."

I laid them out on the table one after another. There were five kinds: yellowtail, horse mackerel, Spanish mackerel, scallops, and octopus.

"That's everything. Starting from here, we have yellowtail, horse mackerel, Spanish mackerel, scallops, and octopus."

As I explained everything, everyone took a step backward. Huh? What was wrong?

"What's wrong, everyone?"

"L-Leon-kun, what is that!?"

"Which one do you mean?"

Ian-kun asked me as though he was frightened of something, while Mom, Dad, and Marie vigorously nodded in agreement.

"Huh? What's wrong with everyone?"

"Th-that one! The disgusting-looking one! The one at the very end!"

"Huh? You mean the octopus?"

Oh, right! If you'd never seen one before, an octopus would look incredibly strange. I couldn't blame them for being scared.

Even on Earth, I felt like people from places where octopus wasn't eaten were all afraid of it.

"It might look disgusting, but it's delicious, so don't worry!"

When I said that, everyone relaxed a little, though they still looked unconvinced.

Still, I would have to prepare the octopus myself.

"And what about that hard-looking thing? Can you eat it?"

"The hard-looking thing? You mean the scallops? You eat the inside of a scallop, so it's fine. You don't eat the outer shell."

"Oh, all right, then."

Ian-kun finally seemed relieved. They've seen fish before, since there are river fish here. I suppose it was only natural to be afraid of things you'd never seen.

But people in this world hardly ate river fish. Occasionally, someone who had caught fish in a river would go around selling them, but even that was rare. Meat was unquestionably the main food here.

It seemed that some fish lovers caught and ate river fish themselves.

If you seriously tried to catch fish in a river, I thought you could probably catch a fair amount. But maybe they would quickly be fished out. Well, without fish farming, I supposed they couldn't catch that much in the first place.

Maybe people didn't eat river fish much because they weren't suitable for eating all the time.

Even in Japan, I ate sea fish often, but I didn't have many opportunities to eat river fish. I had eaten yamame when I traveled, but that might have been the only time.

"So, Leon, how should we prepare them?"

Dad asked me that. His eyes seemed to be shining more brightly than usual. I suppose being able to cook new ingredients must be exciting for a chef.

"Hmm, cleaning fish is difficult, so I'll do that. Someone in the port town taught me. Could you and Mom cook the fish after I clean it? I'll teach you the recipes."

"All right."

What should I do about the recipes? We didn't have an oven here, so I couldn't make oven-baked scallops. Hmm... Maybe I could stir-fry them with garlic, salt, and pepper.

I'd make the horse mackerel as fried fish and the octopus as karaage, just like before.

I wondered if I should make meunière with the Spanish mackerel. If I remembered correctly, you sprinkled it with salt, coated it in flour, and pan-fried it in oil. Then you added butter afterward. I could try making at least one dish that way.

As for the yellowtail, I could only think of salt-grilled yellowtail, teriyaki, or yellowtail and daikon. But we clearly didn't have enough seasonings for either teriyaki or yellowtail and daikon. Simple salt-grilled yellowtail it was.

First, I'd start with the fried dishes, since they looked like they would take the longest. I somehow cleaned the horse mackerel, then prepared the octopus and cut it into chunks. Preparing it was pretty difficult, so I ended up using body-enhancement magic.

Phew... I finally finished. I think I did a little better this time, but...

...... I need to practice more.

Well, putting aside their appearance, I had somehow finished cleaning those two.

"Mom, could you coat the horse mackerel in flour, dip it in beaten egg, and then coat the whole thing in breadcrumbs? Oh! I need to make the breadcrumbs first. Could you finely crush some bread?"

"I just need to crush the bread?"

"Yes. Please make it about as fine as minced meat."

"That fine!?"

"If it's too coarse, it won't stick to the horse mackerel, and it'll be a failure."

"I see. So I just need to finely chop the bread and prepare the flour and eggs, right?"

"Yes! Thank you!"

Mom immediately began finely chopping the bread. She seemed to be much more efficient than me. That's what you would expect from a professional chef.

"Dad, could you season this octopus with salt? After letting it sit for a while, I'll coat it in flour and fry it, so could you prepare the oil in a pot too? Fill about half the pot with oil. And could you light the fire as well?"

"Half!? You're going to use half a pot of oil?"

"Yes. We can reuse the leftover oil, and I bought extra, so it'll be fine."

"Well, if that's the case..."

Dad looked pretty surprised, but he began preparing everything.

While he did that, I cleaned the Spanish mackerel and yellowtail.

"Leon, is this enough for the bread?"

"Yes! It's perfect! Then, Mom, could you fry the flour-, egg-, and breadcrumb-coated horse mackerel, as well as the flour-coated octopus? Dad is preparing the oil, so please fry them once it's hot. It's almost exactly the same as what I made at Grandma's house before."

"Oh, is it the same as the dish you made back then? It looks a little different, though."

"It's a little different, but they're similar dishes."

"I see. I'll give it a try."

Mom rolled up her sleeves and looked eager to begin. She seemed to be checking the oil's temperature already. I could leave that to her for now.

"Leon, what should I do?"

"Dad, could you cook the Spanish mackerel and yellowtail? First, sprinkle salt on the Spanish mackerel and coat it in flour, then cook it in a frying pan. Once it's almost done, add a little butter. For the yellowtail, just sprinkle it with salt and grill it!"

"That doesn't sound too difficult. I'll give it a try."

"Yes! Thanks!"

All right...! Now all that was left was the scallops. First, I had to remove the meat from the shells.

I kept removing the scallop meat with a kitchen knife. As I wrestled with the scallops, Ian-kun came over to me.

"Leon-kun, can I try doing that too? It doesn't look too difficult."

"You will? Thanks! I was actually getting pretty tired."

"I'll take over. I watched how you did it earlier, so I think I'll be fine."

Ian-kun took over for me. I was pretty tired, so I was grateful for the help.

While he worked, I minced the garlic and prepared to cook the scallops.

"Leon-kun, I'm done with all of them."

"Thanks! That really helped!"

I took the scallops from him and wiped off some of the moisture with a clean cloth. I had used Purification on the cloth beforehand. I didn't want anyone to get an upset stomach because of bacteria on it.

All that was left was to cook them. I wondered if Mom and Dad were almost finished.

When I checked, Dad was almost done cooking, while Mom was still struggling. However, the fried food looked delicious, so everything should be fine.

"Dad, are you finished cooking?"

"I just finished. It smells wonderful, and now I'm hungry."

"Wait just a little longer. Once this is cooked, we'll be done."

"Is that the inside of the hard-looking thing from earlier? Scallops, was it?"

"That's right. I'm going to cook them with garlic and salt."

"Then I'll cook those too. Could you start arranging the finished dishes? Since Ian is here, let's use the dining room."

"All right! I'll leave it to you, then."

I arranged the finished dishes in the dining room with Marie and Ian-kun, then set out the cutlery and plates. I prepared water too, so everything was ready.

When I returned to the kitchen, Dad was already about to start cleaning up, while Mom was still frying.

We were almost finished. Just as I thought that, I suddenly realized something.

...Oh no! I'd forgotten about the sauce for the fried fish.

What should I do? I hadn't thought about it at all. The fried fish would taste better with sauce, after all. I wondered if we had any tomatoes in the house.

"Dad, do we have any tomatoes? Preserved ones would be fine too!"

"Tomatoes? I don't think we have any. We don't make many dried tomatoes at home. We have winter vegetables to use in winter, after all."

"I see..."

Could I make some kind of sauce with a winter vegetable?

"By the way, what vegetables do we have in the house right now?"

"Hmm... Komatsuna, broccoli, napa cabbage, and carrots, I think."

Carrots! I remembered that my mother had been really into carrot sauce back when I was in Japan!

How had she made it again? I was pretty sure she'd said she liked the one made with nothing but salt and oil best.

Did that mean I just had to mince the carrots and cook them with salt and oil? But that wouldn't be a sauce, would it? I felt like I needed to add something with a little more moisture to make it into a sauce.

Hmm... Maybe I should add a little water?

For now, I'd just try making it.

"Dad, could you finely mince some carrots?"

"Are you still making something?"

"I forgot about the sauce for the fried fish. I thought I'd make carrot sauce."

"I've never heard of carrot sauce, but your cooking is always delicious, Leon. I just need to mince the carrots, right?"

"Yes! As finely as possible, please. Thank you, Dad!"

Dad quickly minced the carrots. It seemed he had chopped them very finely.

I put them in a frying pan and added a little water, oil, and salt. Was this all I needed to do to cook them?

Since I had made only a small amount, the water gradually evaporated as I heated it, and it began to look like a sauce.

I wondered if it would taste good. If it didn't, I could just have everyone eat the fried fish with salt.

By then, the fried dishes seemed to be finished too, and the dining room was filled with seafood dishes laid out in rows.

It smelled wonderful! Everything looked delicious!

"All right, let's eat."

Dad took his seat, and everyone else sat down as well.

"Leon, thank you for the wonderful souvenirs. Let's eat."

"Let's eat!"